Library Girl Paperback by Polly Horvath

Product Details

• Publisher: Puffin Canada (2026-04-14)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 256 pages
• ISBN-13: 9781774883365
• Item Weight: 250.05 grams
• Dimensions: 0.0 x 0.0 x 0.0 cm

A Pacific Northwest Indie Bestseller!

After secretly living in the public library for the last eleven years, Essie must learn to adapt to a world that's not as perfect as the stories she's grown up with in this heartfelt middle-grade novel from Newbery Honor author Polly Horvath.

Essie has grown up in the public library, raised in secret by the four librarians who found her abandoned as a baby in the children's department. With four mothers and miles of books to read, Essie has always been very happy living there.  

But now that she is eleven, Essie longs for a little more freedom . . . and maybe a friend her own age. She seems to get her wish when her moms let her go by herself to the mall and then on her second trip there, she meets G.E., a mysterious boy who looks so much like her she can't help but think they may be twins. Maybe he was raised by four dads in the department store. Maybe his story is intertwined with hers, and their happy ending is as one big family. But as she gets to know him better, she learns that nothing is as simple as it seems in her stories — not even her own past.

About the Author

POLLY HORVATH is the author of many books for young people, including The Night Garden, Very Rich, Everything on a Waffle, and The Trolls. Her numerous awards include the Newbery Honor, the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor and the Vicky Metcalf Award for Children's Literature. Her novel Pine Island Home was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award, as well as the IODE Violet Downey Book Award and won Italy's Premio Orbil award. She has also been shortlisted for The Deutscher Jugenliteraturpreis, Germany's most prestigious literature award. Horvath grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She lives in Metchosin, British Columbia.